Skip to main content
Mother of Dawn film image; close on a knitted skull

Mother of Dawn

Mãe da Manhã

VIFF Short Forum

In the dead of night, a hungry creature searches for food — until something breaks the cycle.

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Belgium/Brazil/
Finland/Portugal

Year

2024

Language

In Portuguese and English with English subtitles

Links
Content Warning

Graphic violence

18+
9 min
Animation Experimental & Avant Garde LGBTQIA2S+ Shorts
Re:Anima Joint Masters Programme

Credits & Director

Screenwriter

Clara Trevisan

ANIM

Clara Trevisan

Editor

Clara Trevisan

Original Music

Pedro Cassel, Vini Albernaz

Clara Trevisan headshot

Clara Trevisan

Clara Trevisan is Brazilian multimedia visual artist whose work focuses mainly on animation and illustration, primarily within the realms of fantasy and the imaginary. In 2024, Trevisan finished a master’s degree in the Re:Anima Joint Master program, resulting in the stop-motion short film Mãe da Manhã (Mother of Dawn). The short film was produced with a small budget using objects and puppets built by the director from found and reused materials, including the main character, a giant puppet as big as a human torso.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Steal This Story, Please!

Dir. Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
101 min

Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is a portrait of Amy Goodman, the host of the long-running progressive news show, Democracy Now!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Richest Woman in the World

Dir. Thierry Klifa
123 min

Isabelle Huppert plays cosmetics CEO Marianne in this teasingly ambivalent satire inspired by the Bettancourt Affair, when L'Oreal heir Francoise Bettancourt scandalized France by frittering away her fortune on a notorious celebrity photographer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mārama

Dir. Taratoa Stappard
94 min

Set in North Yorkshire, 1859, this creepy gothic horror plays like The Piano in reverse: a young Maori woman takes up a position as a governess to a wealthy whaler's child, but finds colonial skeletons in his closets.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Python Hunt

Dir. Xander Robin
91 min

Strange but true: the Florida Everglades are overrun with unwanted visitors. Not tourists, but invasive Burmese pythons decimating the local critters. The state's solution: an annual contest: $10 000 to whomever bags the most snakes in ten days.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Departures

Dir. Neil Ely & Lloyd Eyre-Morgan
82 min

Two lads meet at an airport gate and begin monthly trips to Amsterdam together. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it's Jake who's calls the shots while Benji is the one who's emotionally invested. Comparisons to Pillion and Trainspotting are on mark.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre